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MEMBER DIARY

Right… And Wrong.

Even as we “politicos” wrangle over policies and issues, we are still losing the debate on conservatism. This article brought that home.

Partisan politics is a deadly weapon that is destroying the fabric of one of the greatest societies in history. It’s frustrating to watch Americans slowly losing their grip on true freedom. It seems that we’re either free to be liberal or free to be conservative. How does choosing between these two failed ideologies give us real freedom at all? (emphasis mine)

The bolded words is where the writer went wrong. He has confused conservative with Republican. I can understand his mistake. Most people make the same mistake. However, the reason most conservatives vote Republican is that fact that we lose less freedom and at a slower pace than if we were to vote for the Democrat instead.

He doesn’t understand that conservatism isn’t a political ideology but a way of living in that freedom he is in such fear of losing. Conservatives are individuals and believe in individual freedom and come at our decisions in individual ways knowing there is no “one size fits all” solution to any problem whether it’s on a personal or national level. Not even state to state.

Neither conservatives nor liberals in government should take pride in their efforts unless that effort results in some measure of progress for the nation they serve. It is well past time for our leaders at every level of government to abandon political partisanship and begin to look at our population as one group.

While the writer is correct in that neither should take pride in their efforts, he’s looking in the wrong direction and also wrong in that we should be looked upon as one group. We are not “one group.” We are individuals whom the Founders sought to allow the maximum amount of freedom balanced with laws that allow an orderly society to prosper without chaos.

It is time for Americans to set aside their Democratic or Republican loyalties so that our nation can rebuild its identity at home and abroad. While we have struggled to pick the right side, we have slowly lost sight of the notion that we were once all on the same side.

Again, sir, you are wrong. We are not on the same side except in the loosest definition of: “One Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” That phrase negates identity politics and victimology. Were it not for those type politics, the divisiveness you are witnessing wouldn’t be an issue.

Will Democrats look at conservatism in a real sense or as a political talking point as it is anathema to their own ideology of a powerful central government for your one size fits all solutions? Were we all the same there would be no need for states. Do you want your state, if it is more conservative to be ordered in the way that New York or California is? Or vice versa, if you like California or New York the way they are? How then can Republicans work with them to solve the problems of this country as compromise is not an option?

New faces in government don’t change anything if the motivation stays the same.

While I find most of the article simplistic and naive, on this one statement I can agree with the author, wholeheartedly. New faces won’t make a difference unless We the People reclaim the power we once had and acknowledged by the authors of the Constitution as our inalienable rights endowed by our Creator, not man Our Bill of Rights:

1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What this means is that we have the right to worship as we see fit; or not to worship as we see fit. Conservatives come in all colors and religions from the Baptist to the Muslim; white to black. Some are even homosexual and atheist, contrary to popular opinion.

The freedom of speech is not to be abridged, especially with identity politics. When Harry Reid said:””I don’t know how anyone of Hispanic heritage could be a Republican, okay. Do I need to say more?” it was one of the most racist statements I’ve ever heard because it immediately grouped individuals as all alike, stupid, and incapable of making crucial decisions without help from an overarching government. Yet, he can say something like that while the majority of white folk gets tarred with the racist brush for simply opposing Obama’s policies, which has nothing to do with his skin color.

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

A republican form of government is defined as(emphasis mine): republic n 1 : a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and is usually a president; also : a nation or other political unit having such a government 2 : a government in which supreme power is held by the citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives governing according to law; also : a nation or other political unit having such a form of government Source: NMW

The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.

In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience, says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers. But of course there is more to the conservative persuasion than this general attitude.

Read the rest, especially the principles themselves, and perhaps you’ll find some of the answers you seek, Mr. Grubbs. Perhaps so will some others.